Is it time for Executives to go back to School? Date:   Tuesday , November 01, 2011 With years of experience under their belts and the knocks and set-backs that they have faced along the way to position their company in the high ladder of success, are your executives ready to take the present challenge in the recent slump in the global economy? If no, then are you ready to send them back to the school again? With the recent recession that the world is facing, the management strategies of the business world, even those of the best executives are failing. And as a result, several big business houses are sending or planning to send their executives back to the B-school to gain a fresh perspective about the business strategies. Several B-schools are continuously receiving request from corporate houses to hold short-term management development programs on themes such as measuring risks, management complexities, employee retention or cost cutting measures. This move is a part of the lesson learnt during the meltdown of 2008, when several companies sent their mid-and-senior level executives to management schools for enhancing their skills to increase their productivity and motivate employees. The entire perspective of viewing the business globally has changed due to the recession and even the big corporate houses are reforming their yearly business plans and the ways to deal with the market, may be suppliers, distributors and prevailing or perspective customers. The corporates are thinking twice before providing the earlier trainings to their employees. It is commonly seen that during recession the number of enrollment in the management schools increases and after completion of the course, they are more apt and trained to handle crisis. Many executives, to retain their position in their companies, want to compete with these newbies and do a hand-to-hand by joining short term management courses. This not only enhances the personal skill of the employees, but also decreases the attrition rate of the company as employees get a value appreciation with such courses and training provided by the company. Companies are designing their training programs to equip their employees to manage the economic meltdown. Several B-Schools, from Harvard, Wharton, Stanford, University of Pennsylvania, IIM to Tuck, Insead and Thunderbird, are targeting India for executive education. The raid change in the business environment had made education compulsory for the executives. According to a stat, executive education accounts for nearly 23 percent of Harvard Business School's revenue whereas the full time MBA accounts only for 21 percent of its revenue. Executives are opting for increased study on innovation to tackle issues brought by the economic meltdown and this is gaining increased attention from corporate for training and development. Today, we can find several corporates infusing innovation as a part of their organization's DNA to leverage it in terms of products or services, sales, customer satisfaction and others.